Food is Sex and Food is Pain Summary and Analysis

Bourdain graduates high school in 1973 and attends Vassar College but is undisciplined and uninterested in his studies there. Bourdain shares a summer house with friends in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he takes a summer job as a dishwasher at a restaurant called The Dreadnaught. Although the restaurant is essentially a summer tourist establishment serving common fried foods, Bourdain loves the job and learns the power that comes with being a chef by observing Bobby, the restaurant's focal point.

Bourdain loves the easy bravado and swagger exhibited by Bobby and the cooks and desperately longs to join their ranks. Bourdain also realizes that the sexual antics, drinking, and criminal behavior of The Dreadnaught crew are vastly different from his college pranks, and Bourdain wants to be part of the...